{"id":41172,"date":"2008-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/wincing-the-night-away\/"},"modified":"2008-10-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T00:00:00","slug":"wincing-the-night-away","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/wincing-the-night-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Wincing The Night Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to weirdly catchy, sonically lush tracks that transcend the typical verse-chorus-verse pop formula, few do it better than The Shins. From lighting up the Garden State <\/i>soundtrack to the Billboard charts (this album debuted at number two and gave their label, Sub Pop, its highest sales to date), the Portland-based indie darlings have followed up 2003\u2019s deeply beautiful, complex Chutes Too Narrow <\/i>with a more assured and experimental\u00a0 — if slightly patchy — offering. James Mercer\u2019s inimitable lyrics that are always the standout of any Shins release, though: textured and elegant, expansive yet never too freewheeling. They\u2019re a perfect fit for the Shins\u2019 blueprint, in which sing-along choruses are basically nonexistent and any hookiness is instead derived from pepped-up, jangly instrumentation and ever-evolving arrangements. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to imagine any Shins song surpassing Oh, Inverted World\u2019s <\/i>\u201cNew Slang\u201d or \u201cCaring Is Creepy,\u201d made nearly legendary by Garden State <\/i>and which somehow no amount of overplaying can ever dull, but there\u2019s a lot that comes close on Wincing The Night Away. <\/o:p><\/i><\/p>\n

First, leadoff single \u201cPhantom Limb\u201d was what sold me on this album. There\u2019s a coiled-tight catchiness to this track, said to be a story about young lesbian love forced to be concealed. Soaring lyrics (\u201cAnd we\u2019ll no longer memorize or rhyme \/ Too far along in our crime \/ Stepping over what now towers to the sky \/ With no connection\u201d) mesh well with the tambourine backbeat, reverberating guitar riffs, and airy harmonies, making \u201cPhantom Limb\u201d a melodic, shimmering introduction to the latest slice of the Shins\u2019 world.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While \u201cPhantom Limb\u201d and the rollicking \u201cAustralia<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>\u201d — hit out of the park by Mercer\u2019s newly-assured vocals and the bouncy bass line, not to mention the endearing la-la refrain at the end — seem to fit into the Chutes <\/i>vein, much of this disc is a contrast to the lovely spaciousness of the group\u2019s previous efforts. \u00a0Take opener \u201cSleeping Lessons,\u201d which does away with rapid-fire tempo switches for a slow-burning buildup. Mercer\u2019s hazy vocals slip past similarly dreamy, arpeggiated keyboards before the guitars begin to thunder, investing this song with a new, explosive energy — and it works.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Similarly, though \u201cSea Legs\u201d has gotten some bad press, I fell for the hypnotic, slick groove immediately. It\u2019s less melodious and certainly heavier with its chunky guitar rhythms and Mercer\u2019s deep vocals, but the refrain is pure abandon: \u201c\u2019Cause when that dead moon \/ Rises again \/ We’ve no time to stall or protocol \/ To hem us in.\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

But some of these explorations fall a little flatter. \u201cBlack Wave\u201d is missing that Shins-y spark and seems to stay rooted in a fogged-over haziness for too long; the lyrics, too, are sparser — a shame, since Mercer crafts pretzeled, textured lines like no one else — and this song just fades away. Next up, \u201cSplit Needles\u201d feels overworked as well; the anxious-sounding blips and shivery guitars are a nice change of pace, but it\u2019s far less memorable than it could have been. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Wincing The Night Away <\/i>is a bit of a tough sell; for every truly resplendent moment, there are a few more stumbles. Still, the album regains its momentum just in time to close things out: \u201cA Comet Appears\u201d is stripped-down, melancholy affair, made achingly resonant by the lilting guitar line and slight touches of harmonies — and, of course, Mercer\u2019s lyrics (\u201cEvery post you can hitch your faith on \/ Is a pie in the sky \/ Chock full of lies \/ A tool we devise \/ To make sinking stones fly\u201d is just one of many stunning lines).<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Overall, Wincing The Night Away<\/i> may be patchy, but it\u2019s worth sifting through to find those real gems, and it\u2019s nice to see the Shins exploring their obvious talents rather than resting on indie cred.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7690],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-41172","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-shins","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41172"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}